Chile miners: collapsed mine and Camp Hope could be turned into museum attraction

The Chilean mine which trapped 33 men underground for 69 days could be turned
into a museum attraction.

Camp HopePhoto: AP

By Laura Roberts

7:10AM BST 15 Oct 2010

Sebastian Pinera, the Chilean president, has already pledged that the mine will "definitely never open again".

Tourist agencies are keen to capitalise on the new-found global attention on the country following the dramatic rescue in Copiapo on Wednesday.

"We think many people will be attracted. There is great tourist potential," a spokesman for Turismo Chile, in Santiago, said. "All the journalists and media out there have been good for the area."

However, the Phoenix Two rescue capsule - which would form the focus of a new musuem - has become the topic of an unseemly struggle. The pod was designed by NASA and built by the Chilean Navy but is owned by Codelco, the state mine company. However, Copiapo wants it for its new museum to the crisis and the navy wants it as a symbol of hope for the port of Talcahuano which was devastated by the earthquake in February.

President Pinera said that he hoped that the positive ending to the story would make people rethink their original impressions of the South American country.

He said that from now on when people heard the word Chile "they will not remember the coup d'etat or the dictatorship, they will remember what we've done all the Chileans together".

As the men prepare to become worldwide celebrities, negotiating film and book deals it is thought that the San Jose mine could be turned into a museum.

The dangerous mine and surrounding Camp Hope, where families gathered to wait for news of their loved ones, could be preserved in memory of the incredible feat that saw all the trapped men rescued safely.

STA Travel said they had already seen an uplift in interest in people wanting to travel to Chile from Britain.

Ian Swain, Product Director said: "Over the last two months we have seen an increase in sales and enquiries to Chile both through our call centres and as reported by our branch managers. Whilst we can’t directly attribute the uplift to the mining triumph in Chile, it’s clear that the whole world has been caught up by the passion and dedication shown by the people there over the past weeks. The whole mining episode has no doubt raised awareness of the country and bought it to the forefront of people’s minds, including some of our customers."

Meanwhile the scrap of paper that alerted the world to the 33 miners trapped alive more than 2,300ft below the surface has become the focus of an unlikely tug-of-war between the man who wrote it and the Chilean state.

Mario Gomez, 63, has let it be known that he wants the letter back as a memento but President Sebastian Piñera wants it displayed in a museum as an artifact of national importance.

Seventeen days after they were trapped by the collapse of the San Jose mine the miners made contact with the outside world by attaching the note to a probe sent down to search for signs of life.

It read simply: "Estamos been en el refugio los 33," meaning "the 33 of us are doing well in the shelter".

Mr Piñera waved the note in front of the world's media as he announced that the men had survived and the complex rescue operation got under way.

Questioned about the request for the letter to be given back, he conceded that Mr Gomez should have the final say on what happened to the letter but insisted he would try to persuade him to give it to the nation.

"I think the message belongs to Chile and it should be in a museum to remind us of what has happened," he said.